Sensationalist headline of the day: “Obama administration gives British distiller $3 billion to move from one American territory to another.” Sure, it’s a small blog that thinks that it’s journalism, but that doesn’t stop it from being completely untrue. Well, okay, the guys who make Captain Morgan are British and they want to move from one territory to another. However, the Obama administration has nothing to do with it. How do I know? I followed the links back to the original story from the Chicago Tribune.

In a nutshell, the Captain Morgan factory was looking to move and the Virgin Islands offered subsidies if it moved there. This is nothing new. States have been in a bidding war to the bottom, offering land, tax breaks, and much more in order to entice companies to move in. In theory, if a company agrees to stay long enough and hire so many people, the increased tax revenue from the additional income and spending should make up for the subsidies. It’s a tricky system, sure, and there’s a lot of distrust in how it is handled, especially in trying to get factories from other places by devaluing the state. However, it happens, it is common, and the President has nothing to do with it.

And that brings us back to the point that I originally wanted to make. Regardless of your opinion on subsidies, you can’t blame the President for them (unless you really wanted subsidy reform to be a part of the political platform). Obama is not giving away $3 billion. The Virgin Islands are offering subsidies worth up to $3 billion. This isn’t $3 billion in cash, but rather tax breaks, the building of a factory, and other benefits. Furthermore, the rum tax law indicates that a portion of every dollar paid for rum goes directly to the rum-producing nation. In effect, the Islands are borrowing against their future returns. Whether or not this is a good idea is another political matter. The point is that the Virgin Islands, as a political entity, have made a rational decision to offer these benefits of their own accord. Furthermore, the $3 billion is not a cash payout but a package of tangible and intangible benefits that takes into benefit the expected tax revenue generated from such an agreement.

In trying to connect this to the Obama administration, I Hate The Media shows just how far out they’ll go just to further a radical political point. Rather than look at the facts, they’ll willingly and intentionally lie in order to try to connect Obama with a negative story.